The Swedish Defence Materiel Administration (FMV) has procured a 14 month long evaluation of Lockheed Martin's simulation and modelling platform ACES. The procurement is worth just over 50 million Swedish kronor and is intended to show whether the platform can meet the needs of FMV and the Swedish Armed Forces in multi domain operations.
According to FMV, ACES (Advanced Center for Experimentation and Simulation) can link military training and analysis tools together in a shared virtual environment. Among other things, this makes it possible to test interoperability between different systems and combine systems that are at different stages of their life cycle.
During the evaluation, FMV together with the Swedish Armed Forces will test the platform's functions. Three demonstrations are to be carried out during the period, covering areas of use such as tactics development, operational planning, war gaming and testing of innovations.
"We have assessed that ACES has the potential to provide important support to both FMV and the Swedish Armed Forces from various perspectives, which is why this evaluation period will be extremely important for our strategic choices going forward," says Jan Szabo, Head of Test and Evaluation Cyber at FMV, in the agency's press release.
ACES is also relevant in a broader NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) context. In a press release from Lockheed Martin, the company states that the platform forms the basis of its offering together with European industry partners in NATO's Next Generation Modelling and Simulation Competition.
According to Lockheed Martin, the offering includes a shared environment for, among other things, multinational training, operational planning, strategic analysis and computer assisted war gaming. The platform can be used across the air, land, sea, space and cyber domains.
FMV links Sweden's needs to the development towards multi domain operations, in which military capabilities from several domains are to be coordinated. The agency points in particular to NATO's goal of being ready for multi domain operations by 2030.
"NATO is to be MDO ready by 2030, which also places demands on Sweden. To contribute to this, we want to add the capability to model and simulate at all levels, from the individual soldier to the strategic level, across systems, nationally and internationally, and across domains," says Jan Szabo.
Delivery under the procurement begins immediately. After the 14 month period, FMV should be able to assess whether ACES meets the requirements set by FMV and the Swedish Armed Forces for advanced modelling, simulation and analysis functionality.